Freetown, Sierra Leone— From November 11 th to November 22 nd , in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative will conduct its second set of training of security sector actors in the prevention of the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
This trip will also include a training for trainers on the Dallaire Initiative’s teacher activity resources aimed at empowering children in the country to learn conflict resolution skills and ultimately prevent any future recruitment of child soldiers. The idea is to create a national model of prevention that is both top down – security sector training – as well as bottom up – school programme. These projects are in line with Sierra Leone’s commitment to the consolidation of peace.
The Founder of the Dallaire Initiative, LGen (ret’d) Roméo Dallaire will participate in this training mission. Dallaire was the UN Force Commander during the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994, a world-renowned activist for human rights, and currently a Senator in the Canadian Government. This will be his first time back to Sierra Leone since 2001, when he was Special Advisor to the Canadian International Development Agency on Children and Armed Conflict. Dallaire has made it his life’s mission to eradicate the use of children as soldiers globally. The approach of the Initiative focuses on prevention, an approach that requires innovative thinking and practical solutions.
Dr. Shelly Whitman, Executive Director of the Dallaire Initiative, states, “this is an opportunity to ensure attitudes and behaviours with respect to the use of children in armed conflict are altered to positively affect the lives of thousands of children.” Children must be part of the dialogue on peace and security if we are to have meaningful and lasting solutions.
According to UN estimates, upwards of 10,000 child soldiers were recruited during the 11-year civil war that engulfed Sierra Leone. Once a place of active recruitment, Sierra Leone is now taking a leading role for preventing their use and recruitment through training. Sierra Leone is currently active in a number of UN and AU peacekeeping operations—Somalia, Mali, Sudan—where their troops are likely to encounter child soldiers as they are used extensively in these conflicts. Sierra Leone has the potential to impart knowledge and experience to the West African Region and the African continent as leaders on the prevention of the use of child soldiers.
While in Sierra Leone, the Dallaire Initiative will participate in the training of trainers for 25 individuals chosen to be trainers of educators (some of whom are former child soldiers). The training will help strengthen the child to child approach and aims to empower children to deliver peer to peer education, which can impact even those most vulnerable to recruitment who may not have the privilege of being enrolled in school.
These prevention oriented materials were developed as a resource for teachers in collaboration with local organization Pikin-to-Pikin and the UK based NGO Child to Child Trust. The pilot project will be validated by educators in the Moyamba district of Sierra Leone.
With eleven years elapsing since the end of the civil war, the teacher’s activity pack offers an opportunity for parents who experienced the war first hand to discuss its impact with their children. Ultimately, the hope of the Dallaire Initiative is to receive further funding support for the project so that it will be scaled up to include all districts of Sierra Leone. In addition, the Dallaire Initiative will embark on a training of trainer’s course for the security sector in May 2014 to end phase one of the project. However, there is a need for financial support to ensure phase two can be conducted, which would allow local ownership of the training process within Sierra Leone and movement towards an African Centre of Excellence.
The Dallaire Initiative’s Sierra Leone project was made possible by the generous support of the Canadian Auto Worker’s Social Justice Fund.
Media contacts:
Shelly Whitman Executive Director shelly@childsoldiers.org +1-902-430-6126
Tanya Zayed Deputy Director tanya@childsoldiers.org
Ismail Tarawale Office of National Security + 232 (0) 76 62 95 00
Josh Boyter Communications Officer josh@childsoldiers.org +1 902 494 2392
About the organization
Founded by retired lieutenant-general and celebrated humanitarian Roméo Dallaire, The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, at Dalhousie University, is a global partnership committed to ending the use and recruitment of child soldiers worldwide, through ground-breaking research, advocacy, and security-sector training.